The Invisible Man

by Greg Maiocco

IPMS# 4444

View photos of the finished model on Greg's Classic Monsters page.

“The Invisible Man” is a 1:8 scale styrene kit newly released by Frank Winspur’s Moebius Models that pays tribute to the classic Aurora kits.  It is made up of 112 parts cast in light brown, grey and clear plastic that can be intimidating when first opening the box.  However, the excellent instructions by Dave Metzner make building this kit a very enjoyable experience. 

            I started with figure assembly and painting.  All parts were first washed and assembly was done with either Tenax 7R or Testor’s liquid cements. All seams were puttied with Testor’s putty and then sanded smooth with files and various grades of sanding medium.  The grey figure parts were primed with black Dupli-Color automotive primer.  The head and loose bandages were heavily dry-brushed with Testor’s Model Master (TMM) Flat Gull Grey, allowing just a bit of the black shadows from the primer to show at the edges and recesses of the bandages.  They were finished with a light dry-brushing of TMM Flat White.  The vest was painted with TMM Flat Sea Blue, the shirt with TMM Flat White, the tie with Floquil Dark Blue from my model railroad paint supply and gold buttons were added with Testor’s Gold.   The pants remained in black primer with TMM Flat Light Grey lightly dry-brushed to give them a worn and slightly dirty look.  The gloves were heavily dry-brushed with TMM Leather and lightly dry-brushed with Floquil Grimy Black.  The shoes were done in Testor’s Gloss Black and weathered with Floquil Grimy Black.  The goggles were painted with Tamiya Flat Black and decals from CultTVMan were used for lenses.  The trench coat was painted with a base coat of Floquil Weathered Black and assembled around the head, vest and pants as called for in the instructions.  These parts were then masked and the seams at the side of the trench coat were addressed with putty and sanding.  The arms were assembled and attached to the trench coat when all seams were removed.  The areas around the puttied and sanded trench coat seams were re-primed,  the base paint touched up and the entire trench coat area was dry brushed with Tamiya Flat Black and Floquil Grimy Black for a bit of color variation.  The colors in the trench coat, vest, tie and shirt were then “toned down” with a technique I use in detailing rock facings on my model railroad layout.  Dry powdered Tempera Paint, used in elementary art classrooms and sold at craft stores, was used in the same way as pastel chalks to add shadows and depth to the recessed areas of the figure.  These paints come in a number of colors and can me mixed together for even more variety.  The key is to use it dry, do not add water!  This is a great technique; if you use too much just brush or wipe it off with a dry cloth.  Dark pastel chalks were then used to add darker  shadows where needed.  When finished a coat of Testor’s Dullcote was applied to seal everything.  The gloves, goggles, loose bandages and shoes were attached last.

            The base, book shelf and table were next.  The wood floor on the base was dry-brushed with Tamiya Flat Brown to accent the wood grain and the rug molded into the base was painted with Floquil Tuscan Red and Brunswick Green.  The entire base floor was then lightly dry-brushed with Tamiya Flat Earth, followed by a dusting of pastel chalks and dry Tempera paints in dark browns and black for shading.  A final sealing of Dullcote completed the base and five minute epoxy was used to glue it to a 12”x8” wooden craft plaque that was primed and painted satin black.  A wood grain effect was added to the book shelf and table pieces by lightly sanding each with 80 grit sandpaper.  Holes in the top shelf along with the outlines of lab papers on the table top were filled with putty prior to sanding and all pieces were primed with black Dupli-Color automotive primer.  The individual book shelf and table pieces were base coated with Tamiya Flat Brown prior to assembly and were weathered in the same way as the floor, using a bit more black in the shadows of the shelving.  A lot of effort was taken to ensure that the shelving assembly was square and that the table top was level during their assembly. 

Assembling, decaling and painting the books and lab equipment were the most time consuming aspects of building this kit.  An excellent set of decals made especially for this kit is available on the internet from CultTVMan (http://www.culttvman2.com/dnn/).  There are decals for various bottle labels, notebook pages, book spine and paper edges, rug and table top details, green goggle lenses and even shoelaces.  I used all but the rug, table top details and shoelaces.  The books were first primed with white Dupli-Color automotive primer (as the decals won’t show up against any other color), followed by an afternoon of cutting and decaling paper edges and spines for each individual book.  Luckily, these are high quality decals that adhere very well and are easy to work with.  After they dried Testor’s Dullcote was used as a sealant.  Various paints were matched the spine colors and the books were painted to finish them.  I sanded off the lettering from the large lab book that was to be used as the kits nameplate, painted and decaled the paper edges and added pages downloaded from an Anatomy textbook site found on the internet.  These pages were re-sized using my computer’s Photoshop program and saved as a Word document.  I also downloaded and re-sized several Anatomy diagrams to use on various areas of the table and book shelf.  I found these to be more realistic than the kit supplied pages.  

The clear parts were a challenge.  Prior to assembly several bottles and beakers were painted on the inside with Tamiya Transparent Orange, Yellow and TMM Metallic Stoplight Red.  This was done to give the impression of various liquids in each bottle.  This was the first time that I had to work with a large number of clear parts and a great deal of research was done to find the right glue.  I finally ended up using GS Hypo Tube watch crystal cement, which was given to me to try by my local jeweler.  I found it to be very strong and fairly quick setting, as well as crystal clear when dry.  The tube also has a great needle-like applicator that lets you pin-point exactly where you want the glue.  All bottle seams were lightly scraped with a hobby knife and sanded using a sanding stick made for fixing scratches on model car windshields.  Each was finished with a bath in Future floor polish that also sealed the decals.  This technique didn’t make every seam invisible but it worked to tone them down so that they are less noticeable.   The alcohol lamp was left clear and the flame was painted Tamiya Transparent Blue.  The burner hardware was painted TMM Gunmetal.  The pens were painted with Testor’s Satin Black with Silver tips and the fake nose with Delta Ceramcoat Medium Flesh.  The skull was painted TMM Flat Gull Grey and heavy dry powdering was done with Tempera brown and black paints.  They were then sealed with Dullcote.  The base of the glass cage was painted with Tamiya Flat Earth and the insides of both rats with TMM Metallic Stoplight Red; the outsides remained clear.  The clear mortar and pestle were painted with Dupli-Color Flat White automotive primer and green ground foam used for model railroad foliage was glued to the inside of the mortar using diluted white glue.  Model railroad ballast and pieces of green foliage were also used in two of the other clear containers for a bit more variety.   All the books, lab hardware, Anatomy papers, bottles and beakers were glued to the shelf and table after first dry-fitting them to find the combination that I liked best.  The hat was painted Testor’s Flat Black and then glued to the base to hide the pieces of broken glass molded into the floor.

I rarely build a kit without finding a way to “make it my own” by adding or changing something.  With this kit the most noticeable change is the addition of a back wall to match the wall on the box art.  This wall was made from a piece of 3/16” black foam board painted TMM Dark Tan.  A window opening was cut and framed using various sizes of wood strips painted TMM Burnt Umber.  The wall was then dry-brushed with Tamiya Flat Brown (more heavily at the bottom) and finished with black pastel chalk for a dark, dirty effect.  A piece of clear sheet plastic was used to simulate window glass.  A new nameplate was downloaded from an internet vintage horror movie poster site and downsized using Photoshop.  I used strip wood framing to make it look like a hanging picture.  The finished wall was then glued to the wood plaque and plastic base with five minute epoxy.  After looking at the assembled wall and base I saw something I didn’t like, the view of my workshop through the clear window.  To fix this I added a small piece of black foam board painted with a full moon and misty night haze to the back of the window.  Final assembly consisted of attaching the book shelf, table and Invisible Man figure with five minute epoxy to the base.   I also added a black cat to fill the void between the figure and the wall.  I found several of these cats in different poses at a Spirit Halloween store that opens every year at a local mall in October.  This store carries a multitude of small Halloween accessories that can be used to dress up almost any 1/6 or 1/8 scale kit.  

“The Invisible Man” is a great kit at a very reasonable price and is really fun to build, paint and customize.   Special thanks to Darren Llewellyn for letting me write this article (my first) and also to Mark McGovern and the Black Swamp Modelers.  This special interest group located in Toledo, Ohio specializes in monster figures and science fiction models.